Drug Store Set To Open

Walgreens Is Part Of Strategy

DEEP RIVER — The new Walgreens Pharmacy on Main Street will open for business Tuesday, concluding one phase of a downtown redevelopment plan that was first proposed nearly four years ago.

First Selectman Richard Smith said a grand opening' for the 9,960-square-foot pharmacy and store would be held later this month. Smith said the store, located on the parcel that once contained the landmark Deep River Inn, would provide 36 full- or part-time jobs for area residents.

The opening, which brings a pharmacy back to the town's Main Street for the first time since the former Community Pharmacy closed in June 2000, marks the completion of a redevelopment project that was first unveiled in December 2004 after negotiations between Smith and Turnpike Properties, a Fairfield partnership that owns the Deep River Shopping Center.

The plan involved a land swap that was endorsed by voters in referendums held in 2004 and 2006. The former inn parcel, which was acquired by the town in 1999, was exchanged for an abutting parcel at 180 Main St. that was acquired by Turnpike Properties.

The 180 Main St. parcel once contained the LaPlace furniture store building, which was demolished in November 2006. Under the terms of the land swap, Turnpike Properties has improved the 180 Main St. parcel into a paved municipal parking lot to be shared by Walgreens and the nearby town hall.

The pharmacy project was approved by the planning and zoning commission in August 2006 after a series of public hearings where some residents objected to the size and design of the building.

Smith said this week a second, and more controversial, element of the downtown redevelopment is expected to get under way later this month on the opposite side of Main Street, when demolition begins for the long-vacant former hardware store at 179 Main St., the existing Cumberland Farms at 173 Main St., and the Valley Garage.

Smith said the vacant building and the garage would be demolished first, followed by the Cumberland Farms. The structures will be replaced by a new 3,740-square-foot Cumberland Farms store with three canopied gasoline islands. Smith said the new Cumberland Farms should be completed by the end of the year.

The project, which was approved by the planning and zoning commission in May 2006, drew fervent opposition from some residents and led to the formation of a citizens group called the Citizens for Deep River Center, and a new political party called the Deep River Independent Party.

The Deep River Independent Party, which has now established its own town committee with an eye toward running candidates in town elections, unsuccessfully challenged Smith in last year's election with a ticket led by local architect John Kennedy. The minority seat on the three-member board of selectmen is now held by Kennedy's running mate, Russell Marth, after town Republicans did not nominate candidates for first selectman or board of selectmen last year.

Opponents of the Cumberland Farms project unsuccessfully challenged the planning and zoning commission's permit approval in court in a two-year legal battle that ended in February when the state Appellate Court declined to consider an appeal of a judge's fall 2007 decision upholding the commission's permit decision.